Hurricane chief gets cast aside in mutiny

Bill Proenza, put on paid leave, will be replaced by the deputy director.

July 10, 2007|By Maya Bell, Sentinel Staff Writer

MIAMI -- Bill Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center, was removed from his post Monday, four days after half the center's employees staged a public mutiny against their outspoken new boss.

He was replaced by the center's deputy director.

In a letter distributed to the staff, Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he was placing Proenza on leave "until further notice" and naming Ed Rappaport, a 20-year center veteran, as acting director.

Lautenbacher cited "anxiety and disruption" that threatens the center's "ability to fulfill its mission to protect the American people." His decision brings an abrupt end to the tumultuous reign of the center's eighth leader, who replaced longtime and well-respected director Max Mayfield six months ago.

NOAA spokesmen would not elaborate, confirming only that Proenza remains on the NOAA payroll and expressing confidence that hurricane forecasters can now concentrate on their duties.

"We're building very rapidly to the peak of hurricane season, and that will be Ed's focus and the focus of the rest of the National Hurricane Center," center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

Neither Rappaport nor Proenza, 62, a 44-year National Weather Service veteran, could be reached for comment. Hurricane specialists who publicly assailed Proenza's performance last week would not comment.

"This is a high-level personnel issue, and I have nothing else to say," senior hurricane specialist Rick Knabb said. "I'm on the evening shift, and I'm going to focus on my work."

On Thursday, 23 of the center's 46 employees issued an unprecedented call for Proenza's ouster, declaring that "the effective functioning of the National Hurricane Center is at stake." Three days earlier -- in response to private complaints from the staff -- Lautenbacher had dispatched a five-member team to evaluate the center's management and ability to perform its job. The team returned to the center Monday to resume staff interviews.

Until the mutinous employees went public, it was widely presumed that Proenza was under scrutiny only for criticizing his NOAA superiors and was publicly reprimanded for doing so.

Since replacing the low-key and unassuming Mayfield in January, he has blasted NOAA for "wasting" millions on an anniversary celebration while forecasters faced budget cuts. He also said the expected demise of QuikSCAT, a satellite that has outlived its expected five-year span, would degrade the accuracy of hurricane forecasts by as much as 16 percent.

Several congressmen rushed to his defense, introducing bills to replace the satellite and criticizing NOAA for trying to muzzle the director.

But center staffers said Proenza's gloom-and-doom predictions were endangering the credibility of the center's forecasts.

Although forecasters said the satellite is important in assessing the size and strength of storms far out at sea, they said landfall predictions rely on data from "hurricane hunter" airplanes. They feared money for these flights could be cut to finance a satellite.

Other reaction to Proenza's departure was swift -- and divided.

U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said he would press the House Science Committee to have a hearing on Proenza's reassignment.

"While it is not my responsibility to get in the middle of personnel issues, losing the head of the National Hurricane Center right in the middle of hurricane season greatly concerns me," he said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also expressed his unease.

"I'm troubled by budget shortfalls in the weather agency, not to mention the failure to properly plan for replacing an aging weather satellite that gives forecasters valuable information," he said. "The administration needs to fix this mess -- and fix it now."

The respected scientist who has been deputy director for seven years was Mayfield's preferred successor but withdrew his name last year for personal reasons.

"We have total confidence in . . . Ed Rappaport, the forecasters, and the forecast products of the National Hurricane Center," Craig Fugate, Florida's director of emergency management, said.

Others, though, reacted with incredulity that unhappy employees could stage a coup.

"You're talking about a guy who has more than 40 years in the weather service," said Wayne Sallade, emergency-management director in Charlotte County. "He didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. He just got sideways of people at the hurricane center, and they threw him under the bus. Tell me, in what other business would that happen?"